denis888 Rarely are there movies so blatantly poor, weak, so openly disgusting, so terribly sickening, so awfully designed and so shabbily executed. I watched this pile of gross dross in utter disbelief asking myself, really, is that it. Is this some sort of a well-known filmmaker who managed to bake this raw, abominable deviation, which is at once sick, vomiting, ugly, shabby, shallow, silly, bland and vapid. Jennifer Jason Leigh seems to be totally bored and she rarely raises above a jaw-breaking yawning fest, while Jude Law is just a boring dude with no merit. Ian Holm is merely a joke here, while Willem Defoe astonishes with his shoddy poor performance. Seems like the crew wanted to create the most anti-aesthetic, anti- tasteful, anti-beautiful film and my, did they manage. All those killing scenes are so livid and dull that a feeling of throwing up evokes promptly. My advice for all of you - run away from this dross and shame. The moral is lost in unnecessary violence and the message is so hid that nobody even dares (or cares) to find it.

Leofwine_draca David Cronenberg's typically weird film is a multi-layered story of reality versus a virtual world, mixing the two so thoroughly that you'll no doubt end up being confused before the explanatory ending. Released at around the same time as THE MATRIX and exploring many of the same thoughts and ideas, EXISTENZ is less a crowd-pleaser and more of a low-key thoughtful affair which still manages to be packed with bizarre imagery and grotesque creations from Cronenberg's decidedly warped mind, except this time in a film more appealing to a larger audience than his older grue-fests like THE BROOD.In the end, EXISTENZ fails to become a great movie by being too annoyingly clever for its own good, and is flawed by being too cold in its depiction of characters and situations, a problem Cronenberg has felt throughout his career - he's just too detached (with the exception of DEAD RINGERS, I believe). As realities switch and characters change allegiances, the film does isolate itself from the audience, although the wealth of ideas and imagination keeps it totally interesting throughout. Here, Cronenberg's obsession with "body horror" crops up in weird games consoles which are plugged into sockets at the base of the human spine (once again Cronenberg dwells on the sexual subtleties of the act) and pulsate and cry as organic lifelike creations.There are a couple of very well-realised situations, particularly the restaurant scene where Jude Law's character assembles an organic gun (which shoots human teeth!) from the remains of his meal and uses it to shoot the waiter, or another scene near the end when a diseased console is burnt, releasing thousands of spores into the air. The diseases in the film hark back to earlier Cronenberg creations like RABID; although his films all look and feel a lot different, the same underlying obsessions and principles can be felt in each. The special effects are excellent and frequently disgusting, and there are brief flashes of the graphic gore and carnage which Cronenberg used to use so much.EXISTENZ also benefits from a strong cast of accomplished actors, although some only appear in cameo roles. Jennifer Jason Leigh is the strong-willed and powerful female lead, and her pairing with Jude Law (as the film's "audience" type character, a complete novice who is sucked into the virtual world) is an inspired one, with the two setting it off really well together. Ian Holm appears as a mad inventor, and Willem Dafoe shines in another of his demented turns as a gas station assistant who has ulterior motives. Christopher Eccleson also cameos as a teacher, sporting an American accent along with Law which was a bit disconcerting for me! Although not one of his best movies, EXISTENZ is a good introduction to Cronenberg's work as it covers most of the themes and ideas closest to his heart while providing enough thrills and spills (as well as an almost obligatory twist ending) for the modern audience.

charliesonnyray I am not a big fan of Cronenberg. I despise it when a director does the same style or theme a thousand times and no one is more guilty of it than he(except for maybe Tim Burton). It gets repetitive though I understand why some might like his type of work. I watched another film of his-Video Drome-and hated it. I thought it was like someone trying to throw every type of food they liked into a blender put forgot to put the top on-a complete mess in other words. EXistenZ though takes all those foods and manages to create an exquisite- though somewhat disgusting-cuisine. The story is about a game designer in a future where game systems are biologically engineered. A bounty is put out on her head and now she must team up with a PR guy to stay alive. But it gets a thousand times more complicated from there. The movies goes through so many twists and turns that it actually almost became disorienting. Yet it stays fixed on the same idea: is this reality? Video Drome had a similar set up but an awful pay off unlike what he did with this picture. My only complain is just how graphic and foul mouthed he got. Are ten f-bombs seriously needed for this picture? Still the atmosphere and story are actually strong enough to make me want to watch it again sometime.

Chris Merrick The idea of this movie and the way it was put together to take the audience on a inception like ride was amazing, although it has a couple of things that could have made it much better.To start off, the thing about this movie that really brought it down in my eyes was the acting, and line delivery. The acting was sub- par, it wasn't not bad, but it definitely was not good. Some bits just felt really fake and unbelievable, a lot of the actors reactions to situations, especially in the last scenes, just felt very unreal, as if they weren't really trying, and the director wasn't being firm enough with the actors about how he wanted them to be.The second point was the script, some parts of it just seemed really strange, or unnecessary. The sexual-tension between the two characters made the movie feel comedic and silly at some points. Obviously having two attractive young main characters, there is going to be sexual tension, but the way it played out seemed unrealistic. I think the director did intend for some parts to be comedic, but it really distracted me from what I think the director made me want to feel.The last point is the game devices, it was just plain weird. I don't understand why the director couldn't have made it an electronic device. It was another one of those things that just made it feel strange, strange can be good, but this was just an unnecessary strange.Now for the good parts. This movie really makes you think, and it grabs you from the start. It makes you question how real is this reality we are living in, could it just be a game? Are we just actors in a simulation, playing our role for this lifetime? When a director can make an audience think things life this, I love it.The way the movie takes you through the whole story is really interesting, it takes random turns, it confuses you, makes you wonder what the hell is going, on. But in the end, it all comes together.Honestly, it's hard for me to say much more without spoiling anything. I highly recommend this to anyone into existential themes in movies. Try to ignore the flaws, and let the movie take you on it's journey.